Axis Magnus Magnus, Reserve & Other Axis Bank Credit Cards | Devaluation w.e.f. 1st Sep 2023.

[bugmenot]

-- Edited Post --

Final Update

Official PDFs are now out
Magnus - https://www.axisbank.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/credit-cards/mgtc.pdf

Reserve - https://www.axisbank.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/credit-cards/rstc.pdf

Revision of Axis Bank Miles/Rewards Transfer Program - https://www.axisbank.com/docs/defau...les-rewards-transfer-terms-and-conditions.pdf

---

Update: 2nd August

MyZone - https://www.axisbank.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/credit-cards/mztc.pdf
Privilege - https://www.axisbank.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/credit-cards/pvtc.pdf
Select - https://www.axisbank.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/credit-cards/sltc.pdf
Ace - https://www.axisbank.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/credit-cards/actc.pdf

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Magnus devaluation highlights

1. Revision in welcome benefits, which are more or less matching with the leaked screenshots
2. Change in annual fee - ₹12,500 + GST
3. No more renewal benefit
4. Spend criteria for fee waiver is now double - 25L
5. Exclusion of government institutions and utilities MCCs for earning ERs
6. RIP 25,000ER/1L milestone benefit
7. Revised transfer ratio of 5:2
8. 5L ER points cap for transfer
9. Burgundy account scheme

Reserve devaluation highlights

1. Spend criteria for fee waiver is revised to 35L
2. Exclusion of government institutions and utilities MCCs for earning ERs
3. Revised transfer ratio of 5:2
4. 5L ER points cap for transfer
5. Burgundy private account scheme

---

Aap Chronology Samajiye

• 📄 Few leaked screenshots of PDF started floating for Magnus and Reserve having potential devaulation
• 🐦Few folks on Twitter acknowledged the upcoming devaulation by contacting their RMs or insiders from CC department
• 🎧 Customer Care team were like "Whot Daa Phaak" is going on. They were unaware about these news, some were saying yes and some no
• 😡 Outrage | Speculation | Twitter Space | Points Transfer Tricks
• ✋ Then rumour mills started about devaulation being on hold
• 🔗 Official links of devaulation PDF started popping but "Darling of Cards" was missing
• 🔌 Axis pulled the plug and links started showing "404 - Not Found" except for unlucky Flipkart card
• 💣 BOMB - Axis Gift Edge devaulation
• 📩 Mass credit card cancellation and notice seeking clarification regarding commercial transactions
• 📉 Official PDF of Magnus and Reserve released
• 📉 Official PDF of MyZone, Privilege, Select and Ace released

---

1. Flipkart - https://axisbank.com/docs/default-s...flipkart-credit-card-terms-and-conditions.pdf

Below given links are not opening now as they have been removed. You may check attached PDFs.

2. Reserve - https://axisbank.com/docs/default-s...-reserve-credit-card-terms-and-conditions.pdf
3. Select - https://axisbank.com/docs/default-s...k-select-credit-card-terms-and-conditions.pdf
4. Privilege - https://axisbank.com/docs/default-s...rivilege-credit-card-terms-and-conditions.pdf
5. MyZone - https://www.axisbank.com/docs/defau...-my-zone-credit-card-terms-and-conditions.pdf

By following the format, it is quite easy to create Magnus link, which could be https://axisbank.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/credit-cards/axis-bank-magnus-credit-card-terms-and-conditions.pdf

 

[vina]

Can't even re-attempt. Points refund timeline is now 20 days, instead of the instant refund earlier.

I couldn't log into Accor so far

 

[bonheur]

My heart skipped a beat as I just got this SMS:

Dear Customer, enjoy an Annual Fee waiver on your Axis Bank MAGNUS VISA Credit Card XXXX on annual spends of INR 1500000 by XX-05-24. Visit axisbank.com/ccsoc for details.

Way to go Axis! Given the snafu, at this rate many people will be paying their annual fees next year, unless they cancel altogether.

 

[vina]

As of now, Magnus seems to be the best card available for me. I tried alternates and got rejected for them. So I have to make Magnus work for me 😂

what I'm thinking now: they may not change the 5:4 ratio for Magnus any more. Let me explain:

at this point except for the 5:4 conversion, with the devaluation of gyftr and grabdeals, and restrictions put on portals like bharatnxt (who were showing transactions as utility payments) and taxes (govt transactions) along with prior restrictions on rents etc. - they have made it very hard for people to honestly expend 1lakh a month on the card. It is not easy to do that every month without these major expenses for a family of 4 plus grandparents. I have so far not used any of these tricks, and since the rent payments went away, it has been hard to get to 1lakh without wasting money (though so far I have managed).

In fact the way it works - in the months when it isn't hard to hit 1lakh, I end up hitting a lot higher (this month will be over 1.5lakhs; Last November I hit over 2 lakhs). And then there are months where I have to plan quite a bit to get ahead of 80k

Gyftr was helping quite significantly in those months, but now that's not a great route. Also I had a situation last month when I ended up taking a lot of gyftr vouchers for flipkart, amazon and swiggy, and then I figured it will take me a lot longer than 2 months to actually spend the money in normal course (wife got some medical issue, so supplies for that helped spend quite a bit, otherwise I would have over 50% of the money right now) - this voucher route is not scalable in any reasonable long run

bottomline is - there will be very few people who will be able to consistently hit the milestone *without then consistently going way over it* - and if you go over the milestone, the reward rate falls precipitously.

on top of that - even if you hit milestone every month, with the latest devaluation, the best non-travel reward rate you can get out of this card is still good (or may be ok), but nothing phenomenal. Infinia does about the same on travel without any planning (and quite a bit better with some planning). And my guess is so will Amex cards.

as for travel expense - with 5:4 yes the travel will beat anything any everything. But if you think about it, other than Accor, rest of them are not really totally out of bounds. Vast majority of cardholders would actually be making use of Vistara (on which lately it had become a lot harder to get CV flights - was not a problem back in Jan, and was a big problem in May). On ITC you can actually use the green points to pay for food alone in a few hotels, but every other program (including Accor) requires you to stay with them - now that's not small but (i) how many vacation days can you take to actually go stay (and I'm talking about people who can in fact consistently hit 1lakh per month - those people are busy and usually have school going kids; else they have arthritis) in hotels? (2) if you travel for stays, you end up staying more and very few can do so much math that they'll spend a bit on magnus and a bit on other cards (3) going to ITC for food-only is absolutely idiotic, the rates in Bangalore are nearly 3k per head, and while the food is great you can get similar food in independent restaurants at less than half that much - so the value is automatically much lower
I don't think Axis would be paying nearly as much to non-Accor, non-Vistara partners as it is to these two.

so - unless Infinia is devaluing in short order (or Axis negotiators and planners are complete fools) I don't see any further major devaluations happening now

 

[mojo_jojo123]

what I'm thinking now: they may not change the 5:4 ratio for Magnus any more. Let me explain:

at this point except for the 5:4 conversion, with the devaluation of gyftr and grabdeals, and restrictions put on portals like bharatnxt (who were showing transactions as utility payments) and taxes (govt transactions) along with prior restrictions on rents etc. - they have made it very hard for people to honestly expend 1lakh a month on the card. It is not easy to do that every month without these major expenses for a family of 4 plus grandparents. I have so far not used any of these tricks, and since the rent payments went away, it has been hard to get to 1lakh without wasting money (though so far I have managed).

In fact the way it works - in the months when it isn't hard to hit 1lakh, I end up hitting a lot higher (this month will be over 1.5lakhs; Last November I hit over 2 lakhs). And then there are months where I have to plan quite a bit to get ahead of 80k

Gyftr was helping quite significantly in those months, but now that's not a great route. Also I had a situation last month when I ended up taking a lot of gyftr vouchers for flipkart, amazon and swiggy, and then I figured it will take me a lot longer than 2 months to actually spend the money in normal course (wife got some medical issue, so supplies for that helped spend quite a bit, otherwise I would have over 50% of the money right now) - this voucher route is not scalable in any reasonable long run

bottomline is - there will be very few people who will be able to consistently hit the milestone *without then consistently going way over it* - and if you go over the milestone, the reward rate falls precipitously.

on top of that - even if you hit milestone every month, with the latest devaluation, the best non-travel reward rate you can get out of this card is still good (or may be ok), but nothing phenomenal. Infinia does about the same on travel without any planning (and quite a bit better with some planning). And my guess is so will Amex cards.

as for travel expense - with 5:4 yes the travel will beat anything any everything. But if you think about it, other than Accor, rest of them are not really totally out of bounds. Vast majority of cardholders would actually be making use of Vistara (on which lately it had become a lot harder to get CV flights - was not a problem back in Jan, and was a big problem in May). On ITC you can actually use the green points to pay for food alone in a few hotels, but every other program (including Accor) requires you to stay with them - now that's not small but (i) how many vacation days can you take to actually go stay (and I'm talking about people who can in fact consistently hit 1lakh per month - those people are busy and usually have school going kids; else they have arthritis) in hotels? (2) if you travel for stays, you end up staying more and very few can do so much math that they'll spend a bit on magnus and a bit on other cards (3) going to ITC for food-only is absolutely idiotic, the rates in Bangalore are nearly 3k per head, and while the food is great you can get similar food in independent restaurants at less than half that much - so the value is automatically much lower
I don't think Axis would be paying nearly as much to non-Accor, non-Vistara partners as it is to these two.

so - unless Infinia is devaluing in short order (or Axis negotiators and planners are complete fools) I don't see any further major devaluations happening now

fools keeping ASV at 2x and APV at 2x ..

 

[amitr29]

T

what I'm thinking now: they may not change the 5:4 ratio for Magnus any more. Let me explain:

at this point except for the 5:4 conversion, with the devaluation of gyftr and grabdeals, and restrictions put on portals like bharatnxt (who were showing transactions as utility payments) and taxes (govt transactions) along with prior restrictions on rents etc. - they have made it very hard for people to honestly expend 1lakh a month on the card. It is not easy to do that every month without these major expenses for a family of 4 plus grandparents. I have so far not used any of these tricks, and since the rent payments went away, it has been hard to get to 1lakh without wasting money (though so far I have managed).

In fact the way it works - in the months when it isn't hard to hit 1lakh, I end up hitting a lot higher (this month will be over 1.5lakhs; Last November I hit over 2 lakhs). And then there are months where I have to plan quite a bit to get ahead of 80k

Gyftr was helping quite significantly in those months, but now that's not a great route. Also I had a situation last month when I ended up taking a lot of gyftr vouchers for flipkart, amazon and swiggy, and then I figured it will take me a lot longer than 2 months to actually spend the money in normal course (wife got some medical issue, so supplies for that helped spend quite a bit, otherwise I would have over 50% of the money right now) - this voucher route is not scalable in any reasonable long run

bottomline is - there will be very few people who will be able to consistently hit the milestone *without then consistently going way over it* - and if you go over the milestone, the reward rate falls precipitously.

on top of that - even if you hit milestone every month, with the latest devaluation, the best non-travel reward rate you can get out of this card is still good (or may be ok), but nothing phenomenal. Infinia does about the same on travel without any planning (and quite a bit better with some planning). And my guess is so will Amex cards.

as for travel expense - with 5:4 yes the travel will beat anything any everything. But if you think about it, other than Accor, rest of them are not really totally out of bounds. Vast majority of cardholders would actually be making use of Vistara (on which lately it had become a lot harder to get CV flights - was not a problem back in Jan, and was a big problem in May). On ITC you can actually use the green points to pay for food alone in a few hotels, but every other program (including Accor) requires you to stay with them - now that's not small but (i) how many vacation days can you take to actually go stay (and I'm talking about people who can in fact consistently hit 1lakh per month - those people are busy and usually have school going kids; else they have arthritis) in hotels? (2) if you travel for stays, you end up staying more and very few can do so much math that they'll spend a bit on magnus and a bit on other cards (3) going to ITC for food-only is absolutely idiotic, the rates in Bangalore are nearly 3k per head, and while the food is great you can get similar food in independent restaurants at less than half that much - so the value is automatically much lower
I don't think Axis would be paying nearly as much to non-Accor, non-Vistara partners as it is to these two.

so - unless Infinia is devaluing in short order (or Axis negotiators and planners are complete fools) I don't see any further major devaluations happening now

They have already done for Magnus, which is more premium than Magnus. It is inevitable now.

Their website says that HNI cards have convert ratio of 5:1 and Magnus is a HNI card. I think something else is cooking and hence they want to wait for few more days before final communication. The way things are going, maybe 25k milestone benefit may also go (Just a guess). Axis can now go to any levels. They have just seen their P&L and have realised big losses they have made on magnus.

 

[phagocyte536]

T

They have already done for Magnus, which is more premium than Magnus. It is inevitable now.

Their website says that HNI cards have convert ratio of 5:1 and Magnus is a HNI card. I think something else is cooking and hence they want to wait for few more days before final communication. The way things are going, maybe 25k milestone benefit may also go (Just a guess). Axis can now go to any levels. They have just seen their P&L and have realised big losses they have made on magnus.

The reserve PDF is no more on their domain. What webpage says 5:1 for reserve?

 

[akf]

I believe Axis is deliberately rejecting Accor transfers now. I had initiated one on 10th, received a failed email yesterday.
Have been able to previously transfer to the same ID multiple times.

Additionally they have push the points refund timeline to 20 days, so you can't even reinitiate the transfer.

Any solution for this?

View attachment 22758

I also got the same error email today. Is it your own Accor Account ?

 

[shushansh]

I also got the same error email today. Is it your own Accor Account ?

Yes, own account. Earlier transfers were seemless.

 

[vina]

T

They have already done for Magnus, which is more premium than Magnus. It is inevitable now.

Their website says that HNI cards have convert ratio of 5:1 and Magnus is a HNI card. I think something else is cooking and hence they want to wait for few more days before final communication. The way things are going, maybe 25k milestone benefit may also go (Just a guess). Axis can now go to any levels. They have just seen their P&L and have realised big losses they have made on magnus.

you mean they have done it for Reserve

I looked up at https://traveledge.axisbank.co.in/TE/apc/Home if you click on Terms and Conditions button, thye have 5:4 (snapshot below). I don't think anyone has updated it though since Reserve is updated already.

That said, Reserve was never above Magnus except in fees. In fact Reserve was and remains a very confused product.

 

[bugmenot]

As the tread is now whooping 88 pages (at the time of writing this post), I request @bugmenot and/or Moderators to take over the post by keeping the first post updated with all the news and facts/links/etc so that people (like me) coming after 1/2 days don't have to scroll through 20/30 pages 😛

First post contain nothing but images. I suggest changing that to smaller thumbnails (or links) and updating the post as and when new information keeps coming

Sure, I will update the first post. I was busy for few days. I am also surprised to see 108 pages on this thread. Probably a few threads on TF has 100+ page. Axis should see this page to gauge the mood of Axis credit card holders.

 

[rogerthat]

The devaluation news started off with mainly these changes being proposed to be announced.

• Transfer ratio change from 5:4 to 5:1
• Removal of 10K renewal benefit
• No more earning points on govt and utilities
• Transfer cap of 500K points

What had happened though is:

• Grab Deals devaluation by 50%
• Gyftr Edge devaluation by up to 50%

Now what people are suggesting will happen is removal of the 25K milestone as well. (Also, where did they get this news?)

In short, everyone is expecting ALL rewarding benefits of the card to be withdrawn now? So people are expecting Magnus to be a Rs.11800 fee card that gives a benefit of 1.2% return? Or, a One Card or ICICI Platinum card that costs 10K? Everyone who is even basically literate will know that no one in their right mind will keep this card. Axis' systems will crash from all the cancellation requests.

If Axis wants to wind up their credit card business then this is a good strategy. Otherwise I don't see how this is going to end.

 

[thanix]

True, earn capping is far better for those who are going to keep the card. After all the mighty Infinia has earn capping.

But when they implement it, they should credit the points immediately and not after 4 months.

 

[D7162]

Now this might be a close replacement for SBI cashback for me as it gives 3.75% + 2% = 5.75% for online spends that I do.

Please explain this additional 2% please

 

[VijayflyRaven]

The devaluation news started off with mainly these changes being proposed to be announced.

• Transfer ratio change from 5:4 to 5:1
• Removal of 10K renewal benefit
• No more earning points on govt and utilities
• Transfer cap of 500K points

What had happened though is:

• Grab Deals devaluation by 50%
• Gyftr Edge devaluation by up to 50%

Now what people are suggesting will happen is removal of the 25K milestone as well. (Also, where did they get this news?)

In short, everyone is expecting ALL rewarding benefits of the card to be withdrawn now? So people are expecting Magnus to be a Rs.11800 fee card that gives a benefit of 1.2% return? Or, a One Card or ICICI Platinum card that costs 10K? Everyone who is even basically literate will know that no one in their right mind will keep this card. Axis' systems will crash from all the cancellation requests.

If Axis wants to wind up their credit card business then this is a good strategy. Otherwise I don't see how this is going to end.

If they remove everything mentioned above, it will still be better than ICICI Emeralde which costs slightly more. Emeralde charges 12k and gives only 1% while this gives 1.2%.

 

[R!ppEr]

Anyone not planning to travel sometime soon and wanna cash in on points instead kindly DM!

 

[Harry1]

Please explain this additional 2% please

Annual milestone. Only 1% though.

 

[VijayflyRaven]

Please explain this additional 2% please

Let’s not make it public as it will be removed next. DM me if you don’t know how to get 2% extra on BOB and kotak cards.

 

[VijayflyRaven]

First year benefits is 0.5% and 1% for spending 5 lakhs in a year. Apart from that we can get extra 2%. So total is 3.75+1.5+2.

Annual milestone. Only 1% though.

 

[thanix]

The devaluation news started off with mainly these changes being proposed to be announced.

• Transfer ratio change from 5:4 to 5:1
• Removal of 10K renewal benefit
• No more earning points on govt and utilities
• Transfer cap of 500K points

What had happened though is:

• Grab Deals devaluation by 50%
• Gyftr Edge devaluation by up to 50%

Now what people are suggesting will happen is removal of the 25K milestone as well. (Also, where did they get this news?)

In short, everyone is expecting ALL rewarding benefits of the card to be withdrawn now? So people are expecting Magnus to be a Rs.11800 fee card that gives a benefit of 1.2% return? Or, a One Card or ICICI Platinum card that costs 10K? Everyone who is even basically literate will know that no one in their right mind will keep this card. Axis' systems will crash from all the cancellation requests.

If Axis wants to wind up their credit card business then this is a good strategy. Otherwise I don't see how this is going to end.

Leaving out the airmiles as it is not for everyone

Magnus will be more like DCB. Both of them are 10k fee cards. DCB renewal benefits are a lot watered down. No points given in both for welcome and renewal.

DCB gets 1000 vouchers for 80k spend. Magnus 25k points is equal to 5k vouchers at 1L spend.

HDFC has already excluded government services from points and have cap for everything per day and per month, even for groceries.

DCB gives 1.6% for voucher redemption only. And the pathetic acceptance of diners will make one cry.

The area it scores is airmiles conversion at 1:1 and so Magnus has to stay at 5:4 with no further devaluation on redemption.

 

[rogerthat]

If they remove everything mentioned above, it will still be better than ICICI Emeralde which costs slightly more. Emeralde charges 12k and gives only 1% while this gives 1.2%.

Yeah... There is a reason why no one even considers ICICI when it comes to credit cards (unless they are LTF) because their cards are all totally useless for rewards. Probably Axis wants to become ICICI+.